Why I Oughta...

Via Dummies.com - Adding a pipe to aid in air flow of a compost pile.  This is not my photo - original here .  With Winter setting in hard, my mind continues to be on the yard and garden and things that I would like to do in 2020.  In my 2019 Yard and Garden To-Do List Scorecard, I included some items in the bottom of the post that are a starting point for my 2020 list.  This post is to remind myself of another item that should be on that list:  adding a pvc pipe to aid in aeration of our compost pile.  From this Dummies.com post - comes this idea of adding a piece of PVC pipe with holes bore into it to add air flow (and even water flow to keep the pile wet) to a compost pile.  That image at the top of this post isn't my image - it is from that very Dummies.com post .   The last time I looked at my compost pile (we have a 3 bin system) was when I had thrown in about half of our Fall leaves and began to use the second bin for storage of carbon (leaves).  To speed up th

This photo is about a week old, but shows you (basically) the current state of our three-bin compost setup that I made in the easement behind our lot.  Using some fence panels and long stakes, I made three 36" by 36" square 'bins' that I've been using this Summer and now Fall. Here's the original post showing the three-bin composter being setup in May of this year . Also, one note (for the garden diary ):  I've also filled the Compost Tumbler again this fall with a combination of greens and browns. The three bins all have distinct purposes and you can see that kind of taking shape here. Bin one (on the left): making a layered batch. Nitrogen. Then Carbon. Then Nitrogen. Then Carbon. Layers. Earlier this year, I added a bunch of grass and most of our weeds to provide some nitrogen.  I just added a layer of browns to this bin to get that layering going. But, before I add more, I need to add some 'greens'. With Winter here, that me

A few days ago, I posted a photo and the backstory of our new three-bin compost setup that I've created out in the back of our property and talked about how I plan on using the new setup along with my existing compost tumbler .  The biggest issue I've had with the tumbler is that I've learned that composting is a 'batch process'.  I get a great batch of compost out of the tumbler, but I usually don't get it fully done until about June of each year. To document the timing of it this year, I am sharing the photo at the top of this post.  This is what the material in our compost tumbler looks like right now.  You can see it isn't quite "Black Gold", but it is getting there.  The carbon material has almost fully broken down and the material has a loose consistency where you can put your hand in and it doesn't come out muddy but rather the stuff mostly falls right off.  It is rich and almost fluffy at this point.  Good, but NOT great.  The

We've been composting in our yard since 2009 when we bought a Lifetime Compost Tumbler from Costco .    We've been filling it each Fall since (except for the two seasons we lived in Equation Boy/Man's house in Elmhurst) and by late Summer, we have a nice batch of black gold.  In the ten years that I've been composting, I've learned that composting is a 'batch process'.  Meaning....you have to build up a full 'batch', get the right mix of nitrogen and carbon and then wait for it to cook. That 'batch process' I'm talking about is the big part of why our current setup (with a single large tumbler) isn't working hard enough for us.  What we currently do is during the Spring cleanup and all through the early part of the Summer, I collect material and just kind of pile it up next to the tumbler.  Why?  Why not *in* the tumbler?  Because it is still FULL from the previous batch. About June or so, after we've had six or more weeks

In our old garden back in Elmhurst, we had a couple of strawberry plants.  I put them in a giant pot (that came with our Ginko tree) and they came back year-after-year we lived there and bore fruit that we (sometimes) ate and other times were enjoyed by various critters.  Here's a photo showing one of the big fruits from 2013 .  Here's a look at one of that plants just about six years ago and  here's a sample harvest from 2012 .   Also, in 2015, I came across this Hula Berry plant which features strawberries that taste like pineapple.  I planted it, but then before we were able to harvest, we sold our house and moved out.   Fast forward to this year: I found this package of 10 bare root "June Bearing All Star" strawberry plants from M&G Holland.  They sat on my desk for a few weeks until recently when I had the two containers left over from planting the kids Earth Day trees .   I wanted to run a little bit of an experiment in terms of plant

Yesterday, I opened the compost bin and found total black gold:  beautiful, soft compost.  I used the Babe's shovel to pull it out and piled it into the garden beds.  I normally replenish the beds with a thin layer of mushroom compost and will do that this year, but because of the bin, I won't need as much. Now comes the next decision:  do we fill the bin up again or should we keep it empty so we can relocate it when the time comes?

Just like last year , a few *surprises* have lept up in the middle of our garden where I poured out our compost bin.  First, I should say that I am SO pleased with the compost this year.  The tumbler really worked it's magic and I (apparently) had the right mix of greens and browns.  I composted ALL of our fall leaves along with a bunch of grass clippings and kitchen scraps.  The result was the pure 'Black Gold' that gardeners dream about.  But, the temp wasn't quite hot enough in the tumbler or the gourds that I threw in there from last year were resistant to heat.  I saw some of the seeds in the mix when I was dumping it out but figured they *couldn't* germinate again like last year.  I pegged it as a fluke last year when something of a hybrid emerged in the form of a (home-named) watermelon gourd . 

The second part of my Black & Decker Leafhog arrived this week via Amazon.   Billed as a Leaf Collection System, this is an 8' hose with a garbage can attachment that takes the sucked/chopped leaves and deposits them right in your garbage can.  I need a few moisture-free days to get everything to dry out before I can give it a shot, but as you can imagine, I'm chomping at the bit to get started this spring.